Abstract
The ecological resource potential (ERP) method allows to calculate the amount of one material that can potentially be produced within Earth system boundaries, if no other anthropogenic activity would take place. It indicates the uppermost potential of one resource extracted, processed and disposed after use with a specific set of technologies and a defined probability of violating Earth system boundaries. This method is an adaption of the ecological resource availability (ERA) method, which calculates the amount of a resource that can be produced within an allocated share of the global boundaries, i.e. when considering all other anthropogenic activities. While more realistic, its allocation can be done in multiple ways and based on a variety of different objectives, which requires scenario modelling. The ERP method, in contrary, only requires information on environmental impacts from resource extraction, processing, and final disposal. The customization of the original ERA method comprises:•Omitting all steps for allocating global boundaries to single resources or resource segments.•Changing the calculation procedure so that ERP is calculated for each resource separately.
Highlights
The ecological resource potential (ERP) method is a simplification of the underlying ecological resource availability (ERA) method [2], we provide a brief introduction and explanation of the method
The way we propose to aid design decision making on resource selection is to translate environmental impacts into resource budgets
As this is not practically achievable, especially because rescaling other parts of the economy by the same factor will result in a system that cannot provide for basic needs, it is necessary to optimize and refine the ERA budgets through scenarios on different allocation methods, new production technologies and optimizing the share of production
Summary
Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Switzerland abstract The ecological resource potential (ERP) method allows to calculate the amount of one material that can potentially be produced within Earth system boundaries, if no other anthropogenic activity would take place It indicates the uppermost potential of one resource extracted, processed and disposed after use with a specific set of technologies and a defined probability of violating Earth system boundaries. This method is an adaption of the ecological resource availability (ERA) method, which calculates the amount of a resource that can be produced within an allocated share of the global boundaries, i.e. when considering all other anthropogenic activities.
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